Full Description
This introductory textbook on experimental physics covers the fields of electrodynamics and optics. It is a new edition of one of the classic textbooks by Robert W. Pohl, written to accompany his famous lecture courses. It served generations of physics and other science majors, not only in his native Germany, and was for many years a standard textbook. Pohl's lucid and memorable style and his consistent use of vivid demonstration experiments made his textbooks unique in their time.
This completely revised and updated modern edition attempts to retain his style and clarity in an up-to-date format. The accompanying videos document the original demonstration experiments and add many modern touches, bringing to life the numerous illustrations in the book and providing an instructive and motivating complement to the text. They are linked to the corresponding topics in the text and can be accessed directly online from the e-book version or downloaded to accompany the print version.
The clear and structured presentation, always based on experimental demonstrations, gives a lively introduction to the main disciplines in classical physics, here electrodynamics and optics. Although this volume is, like its originals, relatively modest in length, the material it covers often exceeds what is expected of an introductory textbook. Thus the book is suitable not only for undergraduate students and their lecturers, but also for more advanced students and generally interested readers, including teachers at all levels.
Contents
I Electricity and Magnetism.- The measurement of electric current and voltage.- The electric field.- Force and energy in electric fields.- The magnetic field.- Induction phenomena.- The relation between electric and magnetic fields.- How the fields depend on the frame of reference.- Forces in magnetic fields.- Applications of induction, in particular to generators and motors.- The inertia of the magnetic field. Alternating current.- Electrical oscillations.- Electromagnetic waves.- Matter in an electric field.- Matter in a magnetic field.- II Optics.- Introduction. Measuring the optical radiant power.- The simplest optical observations.- Image formation and light-beam boundaries.- Fundamental and technical details of image formation and beam limitation.- Radiation energy and beam limitation.- Interference.- Diffraction.- Optical spectrometers.- The velocity of light, and light in moving frames of reference.- Polarized light.- The relation between absorption, reflection and refractionof light.- Scattering.- Dispersion and absorption.- Thermal radiation.- Visual perception and photometry.-Solutions to the Exercises.
